July 11 (Bloomberg) -- Namibia’s Walvis Bay port will
undergo a 3 billion-Namibian-dollar ($302 million) expansion to
enable it to handle as many as 1 million containers annually, the
port authority said.

Construction is expected to begin by the end of the year,
Bisey Uirab, the chief executive of the Namibian Ports
Authority, said in a phone interview from Walvis Bay today. The
deepwater port can handle 350,000 containers now.

Namibia is also planning a 30 billion-Namibian-dollar port
project north of Walvis Bay, known as North Port, to service
landlocked areas of the 15-nation Southern African Development
Community, Uirab said. SADC is an association of countries
stretching from South Africa in the south to the Democratic
Republic of Congo in the north focused on development, economic
growth, peace and security.

“Financing for the fuel offloading jetty and the storage
facilities, which is the first phase of the North Port, will be
provided by the Namibian government,” Uirab said. “We will
seek financing as we develop the rest of the port. We are hoping
that the private sector can play a significant role in this
development.”

The North Port development is set to begin with the
construction of a 1.5 billion-Namibian-dollar bulk fuel storage
facility next year.

North Port could also include a dry bulk cargo terminal
able to handle up to 100 million metric tons of goods, such as
coal exports from Botswana, a passenger terminal and a ship and
rig repair yard, Uirab said.